Moving a project from RoboHelp 2015 to 2020 - not going well. Help?

[culbert.s]

I have on old version of RoboHelp 2015 that we been using for years for our product and procedure binder.  I have used it for many years as an end user, and have had very few issues.  (And I’m not in I/T or a developer.) Currently I’m the only person in the company using it, but it’s a critical tool for our employees.  Because it won’t function on Windows 11, we need to upgrade it before October.  I/T procured me a version of RoboHelp 2020. I’ve uploaded the current project into it, but I am hopelessly overwhelmed by this version and have no idea how to get this set up. The topics are out of order and when I try to reorder them they do not stay reordered; there are ridiculous amounts of broken links, some pointing to pages that don’t exist.  And now the TOC has completely stopped working and frozen the entire project. I have no idea what I’m doing and feeling completely lost.  Any suggestions?  Are there people with the skills we could temporarily hire to get it up and running?  Any ideas will help…thanks.  (I apologize for my ignorance with this! I use the program but had no involvement with it initiallly being set up years ago.)

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I'm not so sure about RH2015 not working on Win11 - I've got RH10 and RH11 both working on my Win11 machine.
Regardless, the change from RH Classic to RH New UI (which started with RH2019) is a bit of a shock. The upgrade process itself should be fairly simple - there are things that will have to be adjusted in your output(s) because some forms of output aren't supported anymore and others have changed (e.g. Webhelp is now Responsive HTML5 with the responsiveness turned off). CSH calls will also change (especially if you go to Frameless output).
The upgrade process will preserve your Classic project, so there's no worry of it being ruined by upgrading to the New UI. I'm wondering why IT would get you RH2020 when the latest version is RH2022. It's all by subscription now & you are entitled to upgrade to the latest as part of it.
Use Peter's website as your guide to the New UI and upgrading - see grainge.org 

[Peter Grainge]

First let me point out that 2020 is subscription only and that entitles you to download the latest version at no extra cost. You are looking for 2022 Update 6.

• The topics are in alphabetical order in the Contents Panel but the TOC will be however you set it up in Classic.
• The upgrade breaking links suggests that you had lots of topics in the root folder in Classic. Is that the case? If so, you'll need to use the Broken Links report. How is on my site.
• I'm not sure why the TOC is freezing the project. Maybe autocreate a new one. It won't be in the order you want but at least it will get things going for now.
• How did you upgrade the project? There is a link to Upgrade Classic Project. You must use that. Any other way will fail.

First I would seriously encourage you to get 2022 and start again. The upgrade process from 2020 did not change the Classic project, rather it created a new one. That means you can upgrade as many times as you like and the upgrade process in 2022 is better. That is not to say it will fix your problems.

If after looking at how things work on my site you decide you do want to contract out the task, then see the Contact page on my site. Contact me there. Otherwise try again with 2022 (repeat no extra cost) and post your questions here where answers are free.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

I'm happy to look at the Classic project to if I can see any obvious reasons for the project not upgrading well. No charge for that.

BTW Check your version of 2015 has all updates applied. Someone found their Classic project did not upgrade until the last update was applied.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.